Gates of Angband

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"...It is a long tale..." — Aragorn
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Gates of Angband
Gate
Ted Nasmith - Beren and Lúthien Approach Angband.jpg
"Beren and Lúthien Approach Angband" by Ted Nasmith
General Information
LocationAngband
TypeGate
InhabitantsCarcharoth

The Gates of Angband were the entrance to a labyrinthine tunnel system under Thangorodrim called Angband. The great wolf Carcharoth was its guard, and it was before these gates that Morgoth slew Fingolfin.

"Ever the sheer cliffs rose beside,
where birds of carrion sat and cried;
and chasms black and smoking yawned,
whence writhing serpent-shapes were spawned;
until at last in that huge gloom
heavy as overhanging doom,
that weighs on Thangorodrim’s foot
like thunder at the mountain’s root,
they came, as to a sombre court
walled with great towers, fort on fort
of cliffs embattled. To that last plain
that opens, abysmal and inane,
before the final topless wall
of Bauglir’s immeasurable hall,
whereunder looming awful waits
the gigantic shadow of his gates.
"
Lay of Leithian, Canto XI, vv. 3522-3537